Personalisation is more than a first name in the greeting. For Australian businesses it can mean showing a Perth reader their nearest store, sending winter products to Hobart while Darwin gets dry-season gear, or reminding a regular customer that their favourite product is back in stock. Done well, it makes each newsletter more useful. Done carelessly, it can feel intrusive, so use data your subscribers would expect you to have.
What to personalise
Name and greeting
The simplest step. Use a fallback such as “Hi there” for contacts without a first name. Mailpro’s dynamic fields handle this automatically.
Location
Australia is big, and climate, time zone and store access vary enormously. Store the state or postcode for each contact, then show local store hours, local events or a delivery estimate. Use location to schedule the send too: AEST, ACST and AWST readers should all receive it at a sensible hour.
Season and climate
The tropical north has wet and dry seasons rather than four temperate ones. A July email for a Melbourne subscriber can feature heaters and coats; the same week, a Darwin subscriber is enjoying the dry season.
Purchase or interest history
Recommend related products, remind customers about consumables, or skip offers on things they already own. Use segmentation to build these groups.
Language
If you record a preferred language, send a translated version to those subscribers. The 2021 Census found 22 percent of Australians used a language other than English at home (ABS, 2021).
How to set it up in Mailpro
- Add custom fields to your contact list, such as state, postcode, customer type or last purchase date. See personalised contact fields.
- Collect those fields through your online forms, or import them from your store or CRM.
- Insert merge fields into the newsletter text, subject line or links.
- Create segments for larger differences, such as a separate block for each state.
- Preview the email as different contacts to check that every version reads naturally.
Personalisation and the Privacy Act
If the Privacy Act 1988 applies to your business, the Australian Privacy Principles govern how you collect and use personal information. Tell subscribers at sign-up what you collect and why (APP 5), use it for purposes they would reasonably expect, and keep it secure (APP 11). Personalising with data a customer gave you for a different reason, or that you bought from a third party, can cross the line.
Where your data is stored matters too. Mailpro keeps all contact data in Switzerland on private infrastructure, outside US jurisdiction, encrypts connections with TLS 1.3, and never sells or rents your lists. That supports the reasonable steps you need to take under APP 8 before storing personal information offshore.
Personalisation doesn’t replace consent
A highly personalised email sent to someone who never agreed to receive it is still spam under the Spam Act 2003. Personalise for subscribers who opted in, and keep the unsubscribe link in every issue.
Measure the difference
Run a simple test: send half your list a personalised version and half a generic one, then compare clicks. Our article on email personalisation tips has more ideas. Then return to create newsletters to build the next issue.